Types of ethical theory. Vol. 1 [electronic resource] / James Martineau.

Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1885.

xxiv, 479 p. ; 23 cm.

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Electronic reproduction. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association, 2012. Available via World Wide Web. Access limited by licensing agreement.

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"In the following pages, I cannot treat Ethics as a Science, giving account of that which is. It would be nearer the truth to call it an Art, or system of rules directed upon an end. But the species of ends contemplated in the common use of the word Art, differs in two respects from that which here concerns us; they are products external to the artist--as a house or a picture; and they are definite acts or objects. The end of the moral consciousness, on the other hand, is intrinsic--complete for the moment in simple compliance with its own law; and is also indefinite in its range, being nothing less than a perfection eternally in advance of the will. To define this ideal of the conscience would be the business of Ethics, did it not, as infinite, transcend definition: we make the nearest approach to that impossible function, if we lay down the lines of direction which, when produced, trace the true path towards the ultimate perfection. Thus to indicate what ought to be is, however, impossible without a large study of what is; so that Ethics are dependent upon scientific conditions, though not complete in them. Two classes of facts it is indispensable for them to know: what are the springs of voluntary conduct, and what are its effects; and the systematic reduction of both these under intellectual cognisance is involved in the problem of Moral Philosophy. The chief attention is usually concentrated upon the latter. In the following treatise, the preponderance is assigned to the former, for reasons explained in due course. A theory elicited, like that in the following pages, from mere interpretation of the moral consciousness is open to the charge of depending upon an act of faith: it collapses at once for anyone who persuades himself that the moral consciousness is not to be believed"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

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June 25, 2014

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